In the course of a virtual gathering of several manufacturers and reps one manufacturer raised a subject that was important to him, but it was a subject that he admitted that he had come to terms with and understood the rep’s position.

“When I take the time to make joint calls with my reps in the field, I do so with the understanding well ahead of time that while we’re visiting the customer another subject or another manufacturer’s product line is going to crop up. When that occurs, the rep is going to have to take care of business that is other than my own. I’ve got no problem with that because going in the door I have an appreciation for one of the important reasons that I work with reps — synergy. I know he represents other lines. I also know he had to spend time on this line. Realistically, it’s the existence of those other lines that often gets him in the door in the first place where he can ultimately make a presentation on my behalf. As far as I’m concerned, it’s that element of synergy that is at the heart of why the rep is so valuable to me and our customers.”

Reps: Advocate for Yourself

When he was asked who carried the burden for learning about what the rep does in the field for principals, the national sales manager for one manufacturer maintained that it was critical for the rep to not remain “invisible” in front of manufacturers. According to the manufacturer, “You don’t get the credit unless you take the credit,” he advised. Your manufacturer doesn’t know all the functions you perform for them unless you tell him. Now, does that mean submitting sales call reports? No! Sales call reports are just stuff. They’re nothing more than clutter.”

He explained that his reps communicate with him when something has to be communicated. “I’m interested in what your plans are for the coming year. Do you have succession plans for your agency? That’s something we’ll lose sleep over. Are you adding any lines? Are you dropping anyone? Are you doing anything different in the territory compared to how you operated in the past? How’s our headquarters support? Is there anything you need that you’re not getting from us?”

Staying with that last point for a moment, the manufacturer emphasized, “We take a great deal of pride in the work that our inside support people perform. However, the level of their performance increases when the rep in the field shows a knowledge and appreciation for how we work. Those reps who take the initiative to ask the basic question, ‘How can I make your job easier?’ are the ones that really shine for us.”

He concluded by noting, “That’s what it’s all about when we talk about communication.”

Updating a Past Recommendation

A recommendation that appeared in a conversation with a manufacturer more than 15 years ago needs to be updated, according to one company’s sales and marketing manager. According to the manufacturer, he recalled an item in Agency Sales that had a manufacturer bemoaning the fact that he wasn’t getting the response he needed to emails he would send to his reps. “The original item that appeared in the magazine went something like, ‘I had fallen into the habit of automatically relying on email when it came to getting in touch with my reps on a number of issues. After I heard from several of them that they hadn’t even received the communication, I decided to delve a bit deeper. To a person, they admitted that unless they were expecting something specific, email just wasn’t cutting it as an effective means to communicate.”

While that item years ago recommended that regular “snail” mail and fax (of all things) were much more effective, today’s manufacturer cited a culture change leading to a recommendation that texting was the way to go — if you want or need immediate attention. “A great number of our reps today are on the younger side. As a result, they’re experienced in multi-tasking and they rely on texting when it comes to addressing matters that need immediate attention.”

A Welcome Change

Too often when a new marketing manager is hired by a manufacturer, reps can expect some fairly drastic changes — not all of which are favorable to reps. Here’s an exception. The recently hired marketing manager for one company that had a fairly lengthy history of working with reps deserves some compliments on a couple of levels. First, he realized the benefits that would accrue to him and his company as a result of the simple task of joining MANA as an associate member. But rather than just join the association, he decided to take it a step further by making use of the association’s services such as the RepFinder® to locate prospective reps, participating in MANA’s LinkedIn discussion page and signing up for any and all MANAchats devoted to manufacturer issues.

“The information I received from MANA reinforced the point that reps provide us with the luxury of being able to ‘jump start’ our marketing and sales efforts in areas where we haven’t had much success in the past.”

Does Success Carry a Price?

Here’s a question that never goes away: Can a rep be too successful? When that was posed during the course of a MANAchat early last fall, there was no shortage of answers. The thinking behind this subject goes something like, “I built the relationships and grew the business that didn’t exist before. Unfortunately, once the manufacturer considered the size of the monthly checks he was sending me, he felt he could save money and serve my territory with a direct salesperson.”

Thankfully, not all manufacturers feel this way. That point was driven home when several manufacturers who work exclusively with reps were asked for their views.

Without hesitation, one manufacturer offered that in his opinion, “It’s the fair rep who earns a fair commission; the good rep earns a good commission And, finally, it’s the great rep that earns and deserves a great commission.”

Another manufacturer continued that train of thought when he said, “It’s the rep who has established relationships with the customer who deserves everything I can provide him. The way I see it, it’s our job to constantly assure the rep that we truly value his effort and take pains to communicate to him that all I care about is his best work. After all, the more he makes, doesn’t that mean I make more?”

Creating a Presence

It rarely fails that the majority of manufacturers that decide to direct their marketing and sales efforts via independent reps have already done their homework. As a result, when they ultimately make contact with MANA or take the beginning steps when it comes to forming their rep networks, they’re already following a map they’ve drawn for themselves.

Take for instance the words of one manufacturer who described his company’s efforts in working with reps: “One of our major goals is to create and enhance our presence in the marketplace as quickly as possible. At the same time, we knew we had to keep our eye on expenses and execute a plan whereby our efforts with reps would be more efficient and cost-effective than what we had been doing with our direct sales force.”

He continued, “As we considered our direct sales force, we were learning that just finding competent talent was proving to be a major chore. Compounding that was the fact that once the talent was found, then we had to ensure that they were all degreed engineers. Once that was done, we had to enter a lengthy training process. Even then the job was far from over. Once trained, the salespeople and we were faced with the task of them developing relationships in the field. This is something reps can especially agree with because the relationships are crucial — without them the proper business contacts with prospects will never be established.

“Evaluating this entire process, we generally consider that it’s something like two to three years before we’d have a competent salesperson in place. Looking at our business model, we just didn’t have the time to do it that way.”

This particular manufacturer moved on from his views of a direct sales force when he said, “One of the major selling points for us when it came to reps was the fact that those we should consider already had been in the territory for an extended period of time. They’ve already done the work of creating a strong foundation complete with the business relationships that were necessary for us. In addition, they were able to piggyback on those relationships on our behalf. Also, we found that reps with synergistic lines already have the experience with our products and possess the complementary product knowledge that we’ve be looking for.”

He went on to explain that he’d be remiss if he didn’t mention the importance of speed in getting feet on the street. I, and just about everyone else in our industry for that matter, recognize us as the new guys on the block. We’re not all that well known. We don’t have a local presence in the markets we’re looking at. Furthermore, if we’re looking to enter the market in geographical areas where we haven’t been before, we know that the reps are already there. Why not take advantage of that? They are the locals with the local marketing experiences. They hit the ground running right away.”

With an eye on the current challenging economy, the manufacturer concluded that there was something else he’s currently facing in terms of turnover that played right into his decision of working with reps. “We’re hardly alone in this, but we’re finding that when many of our seasoned employees retire or otherwise move on, they naturally take with them all their knowledge and experience. We’ve found that by partnering with reps, especially those who’ve shared their succession plans with us, we know they’re going to be with us for a long time into the future. They possess the attributes that we’re looking for because they’ve proven to us that they are self-motivated, have a desire to stay in the territory and are performance driven. After all, isn’t that what we’re all after — performance?”

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